Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Cluster Steeped in Poison

Seven rounded forms gather close together, shoulder to shoulder, as if caught mid breath. Where the light finds them their curved skins turn into fields of fine scratches, scattered points that catch and hold the glow. Where the light does not reach, the bodies stay solid and dark, sealed shut, giving nothing away. The whole image lives in that division, between what is allowed to shine and what is kept in shadow.

Nothing here was added. No paint, no print, no ink. The picture is built by removal, a field of individual marks and a field of fine scratches worked into the surface of deep green coloured mirror glass, so that every line and every point of light is a small act of taking away rather than putting down.

Green is the colour of glass and growth, but also of something quieter and less comfortable, a tint that can slide from beautiful to faintly toxic without changing shade. A Cluster Steeped in Poison holds its subjects close together in that ambiguity, a huddle of glowing forms that might be marveled at or kept at a careful distance, depending on how long you look.

From across the room the cluster reads as one dense, monumental mass, orbs pressed into each other, almost breathing as a single body. Step closer and that mass dissolves into a field of scratches, each one distinct, each one holding its own small point of light. The work asks to be seen twice, once as a whole and once as structure.

Because this is mirror glass, the room you stand in is never fully separate from the image. Around and between the scratched forms, your own outline and the space behind you settle quietly into the surface, so that looking at the work also means finding yourself inside it.

The image is always present here, with or without direct light. Light does not create it. It sharpens it, deepening the contrast and giving the scratched surface more shine and depth, while the reflection around it shifts with the room. The image itself never disappears and never needs to be found.

A Cluster Steeped in Poison continues the Art on Mirror series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which scratched imagery is set into coloured mirror glass and the viewer becomes part of the work. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure, and where the mirror turns looking into taking part. This work is unique.

"Held close, and lit from within."

About Art on Mirror – Green

Art on Mirror is a body of work in which the image is scratched into coloured mirror glass, and the world in front of the work becomes part of it. Every line is cut into a deep green mirrored surface of acrylic glass. The scratches are always there, bright against the colour, while the surface around them keeps reflecting the room, the daylight and the person looking.

From a distance the image reads clear and complete, a pale figure held in a field of green. Step closer and the work opens into a delicate web of individual marks, fine and deliberate, each one essential to the whole. Behind and between them the mirror does what a mirror does. It carries the room and the viewer into the composition, so the surroundings in the work change with the place where it hangs, while the image itself stays firmly in place.

Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The green ground absorbs and reflects, the scratched lines catch and hold, and under a focused spotlight the contrast deepens until the figure takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. In softer light the colour comes forward and the work settles into a quieter register, without ever losing its subject.

Green is the colour of growth, of forests and of things that keep returning. That is the emotional ground every work in this series is set against, and the subjects are chosen to belong to it.

Art on Mirror continues the scratched imagery of Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma on a new ground. Where the black works draw their power from absence, these draw it from reflection. The viewer is no longer only looking at the work. The viewer is in it.

About the Artist

My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio.

As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together.

My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create.

Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence.

I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time.

TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.